Turkey: Erdoğan confronts Greek President on Athens visit

The first visit by a Turkish president to Greece in 65 years quickly turned sour with as Recep Tayyip Erdoğan crossed many red lines.

Not long after he landed in Greece, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began sparring with the Greek President, Prokopis Pavlopoulos. He claims that Athens would have never entered Nato if it had not been for the support from Ankara.

The NATO partners covered topics in the meeting such as ranged from discrimination against Muslims in Northern Greece to Turkey’s presence in ethnically-split Cyprus.

Erdoğan then went on to say that as Greece is an ally, should strive to improve the religious rights of the Muslim minority in Thrace which were appreciated in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. He stated that he believes that the treaty should be “modernized”, much to Pavlopoulos’ discontent as the Greek President states that the treaty is non-negotiable.

Greece and Turkey were on the brink of war in 1974,1987 and 1996 over many disputes on divided Cyprus, sovereignty over uninhabited islets in that sea and mineral rights in the Aegean Sea.